21st Amendment Ratified

Today in 1933 the 21st Amendment was ratified and Prohibition in the United States officially ended. Celebrate the day by enjoying your favorite alcoholic beverage just because you can!

Happy Days Are Beer Again!

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Another Like Us On Facebook Request

We have 131 people following the blog via email, but only a handful of folks who receive it in their Facebook feed. If you are on Facebook, please take a minute to LIKE the page, not a single blog post, but the Facebook page. Thank you for your support, it is appreciated!

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Most people must subscribe to the blog since we have 125 people receiving it on a daily basis. If you are reading this, swing over to Facebook and like our page there and you can receive the content in your feed.

Happy Repeal Day!

On December 5, 1933 Prohibition ended, celebrate today by bending an elbow!

10 Years In – Pop The Cap

Last year I mentioned hoping we would do something to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Pop The Cap and it is happening tonight at Tyler’s in Durham at 6 pm. I received an email invite from Julie Johnson of All About Beer to all the people who attended the very first meeting in February 2003 where we came together to get the ball rolling and change the law from 6% to something higher. From those humble beginnings and with the hard work of many the law was changed and we can now enjoy every beer with an ABV of 15% or less. We now have 140+ breweries operating and I am told another 40 in planning. And to think all we wanted was to be able to do was purchase beers with an ABV higher than 6% and the results is jobs and a full-fledged NC brewing industry. If you cannot make it tonight at the very least hoist a pint to celebrate!

If your village needs an idiot, please take Mark Creech!

I haven’t written about this idiot in the blog because he has largely stayed out of issues which have come to my attention. Since you may not know Mark Creech let me give you some insight. Mark is failed minister who basically could not find a church to call home due to his wacko ideology. He bounced around Eastern NC and then up to NY and finally back to NC before he decided to become a lobbyist and form the Christian Action League. He pretty much spends his time getting news coverage of his sound bites and opposes anything alcohol always without incorporating intelligent thought and research. If he had his way we would have Prohibition. I’m not even going to speak to his other stances, but unless you are one of the few people actually drinking his Kool-Aid you are bound to disagree with his stance on something and with good reason. Often he gets the attention of people because of his use of the word Christian in the name of his organization, but in reality he is a dictator in the making. Don’t take my word for it, another religious organization posted on Facebook, “Pastors like the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They lie and deceive in the name of Jesus.”

So why am I surprised he has come out in opposition of Senate Bill 24. Creech, I’ll call him Screech moving forward, believes it will undermine the ABC system. Apparently Screech couldn’t be bothered to actually read the bill. What it will allow if it passes is the purchase of a single bottle per year of NC produced spirits at the distillery and will return all the local and state taxes included to the county ABC system. If the county does not have an ABC store approved then no sales would be allowed. If the distillery is large and does more than 100,000 gallons per year then no sales would be allowed. If the county and state receives all the taxes they are due and the distillery is only allowed to sell one bottle per person per year, what is the harm? How will that undermine the NCABC system? What that will allow is a small distillery to sell a commemorative bottle during a tour to a tourist who may not be able to find the local ABC store. Besides, the local ABC store might not even carry that brand or may be out of it at the time. I’ve written on the NCABC system before, but as a reminder all liquor comes from Raleigh and every store across the state has to receive their liquor from the state warehouse and all at the same price. Screech would know this if he took a few minutes to look it up.

If you were not aware our old buddy Screech was against Pop The Cap back in 2005. If PTC (H392) had not passed our state would not enjoy the craft brewing expansion and variety we enjoy today. I hadn’t really heard his BS since 2005, but to see his name mentioned 10 years later means he must still be spouting his hate speech and trying to reenact Prohibition. Screech is a killjoy who should crawl back under the bridge and spend his days scaring goats as opposed to trying to influence the NCGA to his ideology. If your village needs an idiot, he’s your man!

Third Anniversary!

Today’s post is number 1,095 for Bangers and Mash and is the third anniversary for the blog.

The blog began February 12, 2012 and last year it averaged 50 views a day and we have 105 subscribers. As regular readers will attest you never know what topic I might choose on a particular day and I strive to always keep it interesting. I appreciate those who take the time to read my posts and especially those who comment adding useful information.

The plan is to continue daily posts as long as possible. So far we’ve not missed a day. If you are on Facebook, please take a minute and like the blog there. That will give you each daily post in your feed.

Thanks for the support and help us celebrate by lifting a glass of something interesting to toast our milestone.

Photo Updates – (Like Us On Facebook)

Recently it became clear the links to many of our photos are broken. It is a cumbersome process to go back through all the posts over the past three years to fix the issues. In some cases it may not be possible, but many of the photos are mine and I just need to revise each post. If you find a broken photo link, feel free to post a comment and I will get to it. I’ve gotten about half way through both 2014 and 2012 and will continue to work on it with the goal to have the photo links restored where possible in the next two months.

If you feel so inclined, please like our Facebook page. The button is at the bottom right of the cover photo which is the same photo as on the blog.

9 Years In – Pop The Cap

So here we are, 9 years and one day since Pop The Cap was signed into law and my how times have changed. I remember Chimay was the first brewery to be widely distributed across the state followed shortly by a beer from Highland Brewing, an 8% Scotch Ale named Tasgall. As of yesterday we now have 130 breweries in NC and the list continues to grow. I’m not sure what we might have planned for the 10 year anniversary, but I sure hope we plan something. I know I celebrate the change in the law almost every day!

It only took 79 years!

June 19 was a great day for the residents of Durham County. That was the day Senate Bill 226 became law and struck down the requirement for people living in Durham County to register their firearms with the Clerk of Court.

I’m not quite sure what prompted the legislation back in 1935, but striking down chapter 157 is the smartest thing anyone has done in our state in a very long time. If you are interested in the verbiage from back in the day you can view the OCR scan and ignore the misspelled words the computer could not quite get right and understand something bad was going on in Durham at the time. I’m guessing crime had risen due to Prohibition and residents were growing weary of it so they asked their representative to do something and they came up with a gun registration so they could prosecute those who committed crimes with a firearm which was not registered. Of course this is pure conjecture on my part, but why enact a registration on a single county?

I found the old law from 1935 which was just struck down, it makes for some interesting reading. Enjoy!

Public-local laws passed by the General Assembly ; Private laws passed by the General Assembly [1935]
Pages: 188, 189, 190